In article , tony sayer

wrote:
In article , Iain Churches
writes


The main advantage of a stepped attenuator is the tracking accuracy.
You will certainly hear a difference.

Or at least, you *might* hear a difference if - for example - the balance
tracking of the two items being compared differ enough to be noticable.
:-)

There are people who will tell you a resistor is a resistor is a
resistor.

ahem There are also people who will tell you that they have run
comparisons, and - when the compared units were of reasonable quality and
the tracking and levels were OK - no-one who tried could tell one type from
another simply on the basis of the sounds. Spock's Law: A difference which
makes no difference is no difference. :-)

FWIW In the tests I've run in the past, I ended up preferring a decent
stepped attenuator like the 40mm Alps simply becuase of the close tracking
and the well-defined set of steps. But neither I or anyone else could tell
these from other pots in terms of any kind of 'sound' if the pots were of
appropriate value, had no manufacturing flaws or deterioration, and were
used appropriately.

They also think a saxophone is a saxophone is a saxophone.
Listen, compare, and make up your own mind.

Indeed. And don't accept everything you are told. Ask for evidence, and
consider how reliable or plausible is may be. This should help you to
distinguish between a resistor and a saxophone... it may also be useful
in deciding when a line of argument makes sense for one, but is irrelevant
to the other. ;-

Slainte,

Jim

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